Player of the Season- 5th Place

Considering Arsenal`s players of the season has been a very curious proposition indeed. The squad has been beset by inconsistency and ravaged by injury. The likes of Fabregas, Eduardo, Walcott and Adebayor have missed large chunks of the season through injury (whilst ironically, one of the few players to have stayed relatively fit for the whole season has been van Persie). The defence looked flaky and susceptible to concede at any time during the autumn, but took on a more impenetrable persona through the winter until Gallas succumbed to that familiar old foe- injury. Pretty much every possible combination of centre halves has been tried at one point or another, whilst the midfield combinations have had more permutations than a George Graham transfer negotiation. Could Gallas feature in the running for player of the season in the season he was stripped of the captaincy in disgrace? Could Arshavin win it despite having only joined in February? Can van Persie resist all other challengers even though nobody seems to be particularly sure where he fits into any other system bar 4-4-2? We shall see. Over the next five days I shall be conducting my run down for my top five players this season in reverse order, with an article on each.

So we begin in 5th place, which appears apt as we spent most of the season fretting that that`s where we would end up in the league. 5th place is reserved for someone who received only hushed recognition this year despite a year of clear improvement and progress. Manuel Almunia joined the club in 2004 as an occasionally excellent shot stopper, but cut a nervy figure in the Arsenal goal. Following an indifferent spell in the side in the winter of 2005, Almunia became an excellent back up goalkeeper but little more. Then after a series of blunders that showed us old father time had ushered Jens Lehmann into its grasp, Almunia was appointed number 1 in the summer of 2007. Suddenly, having started the season as a stopgap, he was thrust into the position of chief custodian and coped admirably, if unspectacularly. This season he has been the clear bona fide first choice from day number one and has grown into the role with a solid, consistent season. I still have a slight misgiving about his big match temperament; the only goals I can think of this season that I felt he was culpable for came against United (Ronaldo`s free kick), Keane`s goal for Liverpool, Djourou`s own goal at Stamford Bridge and most definitely Bentley`s lob for Tottenham. That said, his display in the first leg of the Champions League semi final suggests a step in the right direction on that front, being as it was possibly the most virtuoso performance of any Arsenal player this season. You rarely see Almunia flap at or drop a cross, he clearly has the confidence of the defence that plays in front of him. And Almunia has had many a different defence in front of him this year.

Almunia has developed many facets of his game which have gone unnoticed. For instance, I scarcely believe there is a goalkeeper in the Premiership more adept when one on one with a striker. He has made crucial saves in this scenario from, off the top of my head now, Craig Bellamy at Upton Park (with the scores at 0-0), Yakubu against Everton (when we were a goal down), Keane against Liverpool, Micah Richards against Manchester City (we were one goal to the good), Michael Owen against Newcastle (again, we were one goal ahead), Anton Ferdinand (scores at 0-0) and Kevin Davies against Bolton (we had just gone 1-0 up with three minutes to go). Significantly, a number of the aforementioned saves were made with his feet; Almunia has mastered the art of knowing when to rush out to a striker`s feet, keeping his legs together and on the ground, whilst his body remains upright, making it impossible for the striker to lift the ball over him. He has also become quietly accomplished with penalties. Arsenal have never lost a penalty shoot out with Almunia in goal- and having spent a few seasons as our "cup keeper" he has faced a fair few. A penalty usually has to be high into the corners and pretty emphatic to beat him. Obefami Martins, Ashley Young and Vucinic have all discovered this season that a low penalty that is not placed precisely into the corner will see Almunia save it. You might argue that all of the aforementioned spot kicks were pretty poor ones, but 90% of the time a poor spot kick that is on target goes in as the keeper dives the wrong way. Almunia has mastered his decision making to the point that he stays up as long as possible. Only Gareth Barry beat Almunia from the spot in open play this season when he powered the ball into the top corner in front of the Holte End so emphatically that the ball bounced straight out of the net and back into his arms. That is the quality of spot kick usually needed to defeat Almunia.

Almunia has also shown great bravery on a plethora of occasions this year; you may recall whacks he has taken at the feet of Michael Carrick, Craig Bellamy and Josebi Llorente this season as he dives out fearlessly to an opponent`s feet. With the 5th place for Player of the Season being a goalkeeper, perhaps it is best to summarise by pontificating on his finest save. The series of excellent point blank stops from Tevez and Ronaldo remain relatively fresh in the conscience, but I think his finest came way back in September in the home match against Porto. Fresh from the traumatic defeat at home to Hull, the Gunners began the match very much on the back foot with Rodriguez`s header having hit the bar in the opening minutes. Shortly after, Lisandro Lopez hit a hard, high arrowed drive from the corner of the penalty area that had top corner written all over it. Had the ball`s progress not been interrupted, it may well have gone in off of the woodwork. The shot came suddenly and out of the blue as the ball broke unexpectedly to Lisandro, yet Almunia instantly shuffled his standing foot, reacted to the shot and flung himself full length to tip the venomous shot around the post. It was a save of agility, both physical and mental and at a make or break time. Porto rarely threatened again and Arsenal went on to win the game 4-0. Whilst the goal scorers Adebayor and van Persie took most of the plaudits, Almunia`s stop gave them the plateau on which to weave their patterns of destruction. Much like Almunia`s form this season, his piece of recognition has become lost in the mists of time. Tomorrow I will reveal the man in 4th place.LD.

Comments

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Almunia has definately improved this season, and that's all you can ask, but I still don't think he's the man for the job (I don't know who is either so don't ask .. lol), and I think it speaks volumes about our season that Almunia got 5th place in your choices. I'm not criticising Manuel as such, I won't be disapointed to see him as number one again next year ...... but then again I wouldn't be disapointed if he wasn't.

You say there is no "goalkeeper in the Premiership more adept when one on one with a striker"....its an fact that has gone unnoticed how good he is at one-on-ones..but the best..maybe. Like Rocky says I wont be dissapointe if he remains number one. It hardly matters speculating anyways, Wenger isnt going to replace Almunia as No.1 but maybe we could get in Parker (newcastle as backup).

i think almunia is becoming vital part of the team, i know that some fans want to get rid of him but who would you bring ?! apart from villareal's lopez i cant see any better goalie whos availble. LD, who said RVP can only play in 4-4-2, he plays in the right wing in 4-3-3 for his country and he does great for 'em, we use him in the left wing where he is forced to cross rather than pass or shoot, nice write up tho

he made 2 mistakes against spurs. you missed the one that bounced off his body and back to I think it was Lennon. He made enough mistakes to say that had we been going for the title they would have made a big difference. when you are going for 4th they are less noticeable.

I think he made less mistakes than Cech, certainly. His saves per games ratio is also nearly twice what van der Sar's is. I think Almunia has had a solid, consistent season. I can't lie and say I think he is the mutt's nuts, but he's amongst the top three keepers in the league. Reina is better, Friedel was pretty handy until post Xmas. I think the art of goalkeeping is pretty much gone now, there's Casillas, Buffon and……..? Who else? The Premiership has no Schmiechels or Seamans. It's often been said that Almunia is a solid keeper but one that doesn't win you matches, I think he has begun to buck that trend and has made pivotal saves at crucial times in games this season for which he is not credited.

Bit harsh to say he was culpable for Bentley's goal and Ronaldo's free-kick. Maybe he could have saved them if he'd done better, but he didn't make a mistake as such in either case; did well, but not quite well enough.

I'm glad you mentioned his one-on-one abilities. So many times this season I remember a striker getting in behind our defence (no big surprise there) only to be foiled by Almunia. The first few times I witnessed that, I would think... 'and that's the difference between a top class striker and striker X' But it happened so often that it moved beyond mere coincidence that it was Almunia in between the striker and the goal.

"“And Almunia has had many a different defence in front of him this year.” -- exactly, which makes me wonder how well VDS, Reina and Cech would've done with the kind of ever-shifting defence he's had in front of him all season long. Almunia has to be one of the most underrated keepers in England, if not Europe. If you look at all the newspaper football statistics pages, he comes in 4th right behind the keepers from the rest of the "Big Four." I frequently hear or read gooners cite other keepers in the PL (or in Scotland) as better choices for Arsenal than Almunia but I've never been convinced by this argument. People criticize him for not being in the Spanish NT, yet neither is Valdez, who has two CL medals. Casillas' back-up is Reina, who almost never plays for the NT, he's just a benchwarmer. Good article, loved the descriptions of Almunia's abilities and areas of improvement.